Interview by: Toine van Poorten/Metal Maidens 2002.
NO
SISSY STUFF INTERVIEW
1.
When did NO SISSY STUFF get together as a band?
NO SISSY STUFF got together as a band in the summer of 1996.
2. Who came up with the band name and why did you pick NO SISSY STUFF?
Birgit found the name while she was reading a „sissy stuff“ beauty
magazine. We have tried to find a name that represents our image in one term:
metal music without detours, that doesn’t concern neither sex nor broken
fingernails nor feminism or emancipation. A name that should simply say that
four girls love heavy metal and want to convince alone by their music. So
wasn’t NO SISSY STUFF the right expression for that?
3.
How would you describe the music, that you play?
Describing
music is like describing a picture. You get an idea about how it might look like
but you don’t get the expressed feelings. We always simply say that we play
heavy metal. Significant for No sissy stuff is in general that we love combining
opposites, e.g. hard riffs with melodies and clean vocals with grunts/growls.
Our compositions just come out of our minds so we never thought a lot about
descriptions…
4.
Did the band members play in any other bands, before they joined NO SISSY STUFF?
Birgit made a lot of experiences with band projects before: Yummi Yummi Girls
(heavy metal from Düsseldorf + Andernach, git.), Byonix (punk from Koblenz, git.),
Bad Cheap & Nasty (heavy metal from Neuss, git. & voc.), Ragged Glory
(Bob Dylan-project, b & voc), Daddies Diamonds (successful A-capella-project),
gigs with 'Rockfire' (heavy metal from Bad Breisig, backings),'The real mother
fisherman' (as guest-guitarist), the 'Booze-Band' (guest-gig with 'Daddies
Diamonds') and with Kai Streier (ex-Ragged Glory, voc.) and guest-vampire in the
cover band 'Vampire'. Gudrun also made some experiences in different band
projects that she didn’t want to have mentioned here and Daniela played bass
in Birgit’s no name cover project right before the foundation of No sissy
stuff.
5. The most remarkable fact about NO SISSY STUFF is of
course that there are three sisters in the line up. Did you know right from the
start, who would play which instrument or did you have long discussions about it?
Discussions about that haven’t been necessary. Birgit already played
guitar and Daniela decided to play the bass guitar in Birgit’s upper mentioned
cover project. Gudrun already played drums and she never wanted to play any
other instrument. Katja has been interested in playing guitar and so it became a
bit like a puzzle. These 4 parts fitted exactly together…
6.
Did you listen to (almost) the same music, before you formed this band or can we
see a certain difference in musical preferences between the three sisters?
Our favourite music was and is heavy metal. There are some bands we all
like very much, but every one of us has her own faves. Like in our music we
don’t subdivide metal into certain styles so we can’t say one of us prefers
power metal, black metal or anything else.
7.
How did you get in touch with Gudrun, your drummer? It must have been extremely
difficult to find someone, who would fit in your band. After all, the three of
you already have a long lasting, strong bound together as sisters?
Someone
who knew that Birgit was searching for a drummer also knew Gudrun and gave her
Birgit's telephone number. Gudrun convinced Daniela and Birgit at once during
the first common rehearsal. We simply knew that she was the one. She really
fitted to the band and she was open for new experiences. And she was also ready
for spending time in rehearsing, playing live-shows and all the other things
that have to be done in a band.
Birgit was influenced a lot by the regional acts. Before she started
playing guitar she loved being in rehearsal rooms of some friends. There is no
special band that influences us now. Our favourite bands change with time and we
are not fixed on a certain style. If the bands we listen to influenced us
directly, our music would sound very different!
9. Katja was the last sister, who actually joined the
band. She came in even after Gudrun had joined the band. Wasn’t she convinced
enough yet, that it would really work as an all- female heavy metal band? Why
did she join the band later than the rest?
At
the time Gudrun met Birgit and Daniela, Birgit’s former cover project still
existed. But the drummer left the band because she wanted to put her focus on
her job. So we started composing our own songs with Gudrun and we asked our
former singer and our guitarist to work with us on the new project, but they
didn’t like the music style. For Katja this had been a welcome development.
She preferred that harder music style and she decided to join the band as second
guitarist. It was never a question for us if it really would work as an all-
female heavy metal band.
10. Was it important for you that this band had to become
an all female band, or did you leave the chance open for a male member to join
your ranks?
It was not important to become an all female band it was by chance.
11.
I read, that Katja is the poet of the band. She has written all the lyrics for
NO SISSY STUFF’s first CD “Last Poem”. Can
she tell us, what the lyrics are about?
In general I write my lyrics about things that concern me personally, for
example special situations, difficult decisions, religions, death, the search
for the “right way” and every kind of feeling you can imagine. I could write
a book about my lyrics but I think in your magazine there is not enough space
for that… but I’m writing interpretations of my lyrics that you can read
someday on our homepage.
12. Your first self composed song, as a result of the
first rehearsals with GUDRUN, was called “Fight”. How come that this
particular song was not on your first CD “Last Poem”?
“Fight” was the first song we composed in our lives. It has a rather
simple structure. We didn’t want to record our first songs, because for
Daniela
and Katja they were more or less learning to play their instruments. After
becoming more experienced these songs didn’t fit to our new songs anymore.
13.
Are there more unreleased tracks from that first period that you didn’t record
for this first album?
Yes, there are more unreleased tracks... There are some riffs and ideas
that we are going to take up again on our new CD but we won’t release one of
these songs completely.
14.
Let’s take a look at your live shows. Do you play much live?
How many shows we play in a year depends on the time we have and the
offers we get, but it’s almost between eight and fifteen. We love playing live
shows and are trying to enlarge the number.
15.
What does a NO SISSY STUFF live show look like? Are there any show elements that
you add to the show, and/or do you play any interesting covers?
Please tell our readers a bit more of what they can expect, when they go
to a NO SISSY STUFF gig.
There
are no special effects we add to the show, but we’ve already thought about
that. We are searching for some effects that support the messages and meanings
of our songs, but until now we just try to live our songs on stage. We have a
few cover songs in our program. We always take songs that we like very much –
if famous or not. One song that was never missing till now is Strange machines /
The Gathering and we also play The Suicider / Sentenced. Another thing we do is
playing some songs of Def Con II, a band that doesn’t exist anymore. It has
become our mission to keep these songs alive and to spread the Def Con II spirit
all over the world.
:-)
16.
With which bands did you play live already?
There are too many to mention them all here. They are listed on our
homepage www.nosissystuff.de. There
are some bands we play several shows with because the music and the band spirit
fits together, for example Odium, Divinus, Ivory Night, Trespass etc. An
interesting experience has been the gig with the Mongolians Haranga who have a
totally different mentality. We have played shows with many nice bands and we
are looking forward to the bands we are going to meet in the future.
17. Did you play outside of Germany already, and if yes, where (and when) was
that?
No, unfortunately not. We nearly had a show in Portugal. We have been
there on holidays and we met a band from Germany that was touring there with a
band from Portugal. They asked us to play a show with them but unfortunately we
got a “handy problem” and so we went on singing our songs at night on the
beach… alone…
The
press confirms us what we think about the actual state of No sissy stuff.
“Last poem” is a good debut with some space for improvements. Eagerly they
are looking forward to our new CD and our further development as well as we do.
19.
Did you also get reactions from the press outside of Germany on your great CD?
Yes, the Italian internetzine “Babylon“ and the Yugoslavian printzine
“THE VAULT” wrote reviews about “Last Poem” and did interviews with us.
“Undertow”, a magazine from Belgium wrote a review and at the moment we are
answering interviews from Chile and USA, too. We often receive mails from metal
fans all over the world that are interested in our music. We even had demands to
play shows in the USA, Bali, Italy and so on.
20.
Were there also any negative remarks on your first CD and what’s your reaction,
when you read such a negative comment? Do you ignore it or do you read it very
carefully and try to avoid the same ‘mistake’ again next time?
Some criticized that the vocals were not loud enough; others said they
were too loud…but if critics include things that can be improved we try to
change these things for the next time if we agree with them. Serious critics we
read with great interest. Perhaps they include some tips for us. But on some
phrases we don’t react, for example we don’t care about remarks on the
colour of our guitars. We also ignore critics on our music style, because music
is always a matter of taste and we play the music we love to play.
21.
I liked your CD a lot and I’m very curious about your new stuff already. Can
you tell us a bit more about the new songs already?
The
new CD will be called “End time artist” and some songs are already composed.
Like on every “the next CD” you will hear the further development of the
band, but the base will still be the same kind of metal. Even in the lyrics you
will find the development from a “pour poet, you’re too late, your words are
all said, your poems are already made” to a more positive way. The feeling
that everything already exists goes to accepting this fact and making the best
out of it.
22.
What’s your favourite NO SISSY STUFF song and why?
The favourite NO SISSY STUFF song is in general the newest one. At the moment
it’s the title song of the CD we are going to record: “End time artist”
but that also depends on the mood we are in.
23. Is it a coincidence, that you used a railway on your
promo picture and the CD cover or is there any particular reason for that?
I
like the pictures railway, station, trains, because they have a lot of meanings.
The place where I wrote most of the lyrics, the railway-station of Koblenz,
inspires a lot. The promo picture has a special meaning, too. The rails are a
picture for the way of life and for us that’s music, so on this promo picture
we are standing on our base. The CD is “only” a station in our life.
That’s why there are parts of a railway station on the cover.
24.
I have a theory about your CD sleeve, but I might go too far in my thinking. I
just wanted to explain it to you anyway, so you can react to this. I made a
connection between the CD sleeve and the CD title. The title is “Last Poem”,
which stands for ‘some ones last action’. Maybe even some ones very last
action, before he/she dies. Looking at the picture on your CD sleeve, my mind
went out to the railways, that lead to the gates of the concentration camps. The
hazy picture on the back of the CD booklet looks like the hazy pictures that you
sometimes see from that period. In combination with the big building, it made me
think of people who are writing their last poem during the war in a
concentration camp. I think I’m totally wrong here, especially in connection
with the clock that I can’t place in this story, but this was the very first
idea that I got, after I saw it. Your reaction on this theory, please.
I wanted to have these pictures on the CD cover because they inspired me
to write these songs. Maybe I explain now how I wrote the lyric of “Last
Poem”. Sitting on my old place on the Koblenzer railway- station, I had a lot
of feelings, felt inspired to write something, but there were no real thoughts,
no real words. While sitting there, I realized that you can’t write something
completely new, because there were a lot of poets who had my ideas before me. It
is the last poem, because I thought after this knowledge I would never be able
to write something again, but I was wrong. I
have the intention that people have their own thoughts about the meaning of the
lyrics and the pictures on the CD. I always try to describe the pictures that
had inspired me. They have a special meaning, but I always try to leave enough
space for every ones personal interpretation. So I’m glad that you made your
own theory, but if you’d know me, you wouldn’t associate anything I do with
war or concentration camps.
25.
Well, let’s move on to a bit easier subject now. In your CD booklet you
thanked a lot of bands on the last page. There was one remarkable name among
them, and that’s the name of TRESPASS. Is this by any chance the legendary
NWOBHM band? And if yes, what is your connection with this band?
No, it’s not the NWOBHM band TRESPASS. It’s the legendary trance
metal band from Sinzig & Köln. J
26.
In the bio of Birgit, we can read that she has played in several other heavy
metal bands before like THE YUMMI YUMMI GIRLS, BAD, CHEAP AND NASTY and ROCKFIRE.
Did you also record something with these bands?
No. In my first band, the Yummi Yummi Girls, our guitarist Mary (later B
Bang Cider) was from Düsseldorf and we got problems with the rehearsals because
of the distance. Bad, Cheap & Nasty had some demo tapes, but at the time I
joined the band the guys had already been at the end of their career. It was
their last trial and it failed. Rockfire recorded a single during the eighties.
At their live shows three other girls and me did the backing vocals as “Kinky
Girls” – something like the “Nasty Habits” of Mötley Crue. The
remembrance at it makes me smile…
27. What would you think is the major difference between
these heavy metal bands and NO SISSY STUFF?
The
main difference was that I played an instrument in an already existing band, but
wasn’t involved in the song writing. I only played the ideas of others, it
didn`t satisfy me. The “No sissy stuff” girls are my best friends and we do
a lot of things together and we have the same idea about how to compose songs,
about “goals” and so on.
28.
On the bottom of the bio of Birgit I found a nice statement which said: “How
will it go on? That doesn’t matter, because...the way is the goal”. Please
explain this a bit closer to us.
It means that we are not going to reach a certain goal. We compose, do
recordings, play live shows, etc. because we love doing that. We are not
doing it with the intention to reach something special. To love what you do is
more important than anything else.
29.
How important is the Internet for your band?
We never paid much attention to the Internet till Birgit started working
in an Internet company. We got a domain and email accounts and suddenly we
enjoyed making a band homepage and getting all these nice contacts to metal fans
from all over the world.
30.
I also found a link to a site, that had the “Hellraiser” logo in their
banner. Do you like this kind of movies?
We think this banner was shown by one of the banner exchanges we join. We
don’t have any influences on the banner shown through that. But in general we
don’t like horror films. It doesn’t give a pleasant feeling and we don’t
learn anything by watching a horror film so for us there is no sense in watching
such films.
31.
Do you girls have any hobbies or interests besides playing music?
Yes, we all have. But most of them deal with music or art in general.
Daniela and Katja for example love dancing and Birgit likes painting and she’s
going to write a book. We take part in a great musical and a short-film project.
Gudrun does some band projects like a W.A.S.P. cover band and she loves sessions
with other musicians.
32. How do the three sisters in the band separate their
private life from the band? I can imagine, that if one of the three sisters is
dealing with a big problem, it will effect her two sisters, and it might reflect
on your work with Gudrun as well. How do you deal with these situations?
It’s impossible to separate private life from the band, but that’s no
problem. We’ve learned to deal with that. If anyone of us has a problem we
talk and discuss about that and sometimes Katja suddenly gets silent, takes a
piece of paper and writes a new song text. In this case the problem becomes very
useful for us.
33. What’s your profession besides playing in a band and would you like to
become a professional musician?
Birgit works as a key account assistant in an Internet company, Gudrun
works as taxi & bus-driver. Katja is studying business management and
Daniela is going to make her diploma in laser-technics soon. We really love
being musicians and if there will be a possibility to live from music or art,
we’ll surely take the chance.
34.
What are the future plans for NO SISSY STUFF?
Marrying and getting children – just kidding. First we are going to
record our next CD and after that we think about touring through Germany. But
beside that, we don’t have any concrete plans. We just go the way we expect to
be ours and enjoy every single step.
35. Any plans for playing in Holland maybe??
No plans yet, but if there’s an opportunity we will take it!
36. Is there anything you’d like to add to this
interview? Maybe there’s something we forgot to mention and that is essential
enough to write about.
37. Are there any personal messages, that you have for our readers Metal Maidens?
If
you play in a band and you get an interview from “Metal Maidens” pay
attention! It’s really hard work! But this work is worth to be done because
you learn a lot about yourself and the band ‘cause there are really thoughtful
and interesting questions!
38.
Do you agree that women have to work harder in the music scene to get the
recognition that they deserve, which is also the main reason why we started this
magazine seven years ago, or don’t you think that this is true anymore in this
new millennium?
For us it doesn’t make a difference if you are male or female. Reality is
subjective and everybody perceives it as absolutely valid. We think that
everybody creates his own reality and if someone thinks that there is a problem,
there will be a problem – in the head of this person. We believe that if you
are fascinated in what you are doing and work on it with enthusiasm you are on
the right way.
39. The last words are for you.
We hope these words aren’t our last ones! Thank you, Toine, for asking all
these interesting questions and thank you ALL for reading this.
We
like to thank you very much for answering all our questions and we want to wish
you all the success in the world for your further career. I hope we can stay in
touch, so you can update us from time to time about NO SISSY STUFF.
Cheers!